Ironing board cloth fastening means



Aug. 6, 1940.

L. SCANLON 2.210.601

IRONING BOARD CLOTH FASTENING MEANS Y Filed June 17, 1939 FIGJ,

INVENTOR.

LAUR A 5 CAN LON A TTORNE Y Patented Aug. 6,1940

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 4 Claims.

A still further object of this invention is the provision of fastening elements having sharply pointed hooks and a guard concealing the points so as to prevent injury to the user by the hooks.

Additional objects of this invention will be made apparent from the description and drawing herein set forth in which:

Figure 1 is a bottom plan view of an ironing board showing covering material held in place by fastening means constructed in accordance with this invention;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of one of the fastening elements;

Figure 3 is an enlarged bottom plan view of a portion of a fastening element;

Figure 4 is a side elevational view of the form shown in Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a section taken on lines 5-5 of Figure 1;

Figure 6 is a section taken on lines 6-6 of Figure 3.

The invention consists of a body portion In having a head I l in which hooks I2 are attached to one side thereof. The ends M of the hooks are protected by guard I3 which is automatically rolled away from .the ends by the installation of 40 the fastener. Each fastener is connected to a tensional member l5 which is in turn either connected to a similar body portion ID, as shown in Figure 2, or to an anchoring means l6 as shown in Figure 1. 4 At the present time there is available on the market several types of fastening means for ironing board covers. The defects in these known fastening means are numerous and will be briefly mentioned so that the applicants improvements over the art will be more apparent. In the first place, the hooks are widely separated and of substantial size. This results in placing considerable strain at one point of the cloth as well as leaving a large hole or tear in the material by the attachment and detachment of the same. Secondly,

the ends of the hooks are uncovered which results in the operator frequently burying the pins in his or her hand in attempting to install the same. In addition, when the fastening elements are removed they become entangled in themselves 5 or in other objects and, thus, are extremely bothersome to handle. Some of the fastening units connect all the body portions to one large tensioning means, which necessitates disposal of the entire unit if one link breaks; and, also re- 10 quires extreme care in attaching the individual fasteners so that the entire unit is properly balanced. The applicant believes that all of the above objections have been removed by the in vention in question.

With reference to the drawing more in detail, it will be seen that the head II has three hooks I2 secured thereto. These hooks or pins are preferably of a rust-proof type tapering to a small sharp end so that they will not stain the fabric with which they are used, nor is their diameter great enough to normally -rupturethe cloth.

With reference to Figure 5, it will be seen that the hooks extend through the head portion, and the blunt ends I! thereof are anchored in the grooves H3 in the back of the head. The pins are then bent downward toward the bottom IQ of the head until the sharp ends 2| are approximately one-quarter of an inch from the inner face 22 of the head. I prefer to space the hooks I2 apart about one-quarter of an inch or more so that when they are embedded in the fabric they will cover asubstantial surface. The length of the pins should be such that when the sharp ends 2| have been bent downward they will be 35 spaced back from the bottom l9 of the head a suflicient distance to allow the attachment of guard l3. This guard is shown as comprising a piece of flexible tubing adjacent the ends Id of the pins which is secured to face 22 by a staple 24 or they like. This guard is of a diameter sufficiently greater than the distance between the ends of the pins and the face 22 of the head so that the user is protected from accidental engagement with those ends.

The neck 25 has one end secured to the head I l in a manner to cover grooves l8 of the head so as to further anchor blunt ends H. The opposite end of the neck has an aperture 26 through which a split ring such as 21 is extended. Through this ring are inserted tensioning means l5 herein shown as rubber bands. The opposite ends of the tensioning means I5 are attached to a similar ring 21' which is attached to a body portion 10'.

With reference to the fastening element shown at' the narrow end of the board in Figure 1, it will be seen that the element difl'ers only from that shownin Figure 2 in that the unit consists only of one of said body portions, and a hook such as 28 is substituted for the body portion Ill. The end 29 of this hook is secured to eyelet 30 in the ironing board and this modification is normally used as shown at the narrow end of the board, as can be seen in Figure 1.

The operation of the fastening elements is as follows:

' A cloth such as 3| is placed over the board and should be of suflicient size to allow the ends 32 thereof to fold underneath the board. A fastener I0 is placed on the cloth on the underside of the board and rolled outwardly a short distance toward edge 33 of the board and then pulled back into the cloth. This rolls guard l3 away from the ends I of the hooks and allows the same to embed themselves in the material. The opposite end of the fastener I0 is then extended toward the opposite side of the board and installed in the same manner.

For the average size ironing board three or four fastener units are installed parallel to each other and at substantially an equal distance apart. The unit toward the narrow end of the board can either have shorter rubber bands between the two rings, or the tension may be increased by twisting the rubber bands to shorten the same.

To install the fastening element at the narrow end of the board, an eyelet 30 is secured to the underside of the board a suflicient distance from the narrow end! of the board to insure that the fastener when installed will be under tension. Hook 28 is then inserted in the eyelet and the fastener element In is then attached to the cloth at the narrow end of the board in the same manner as above described for the other elements.

Thus, it will be seen that this invention provides a novel and extremely simple fastening means for ironing board covers. It will be obvious from the above description that this fastening means will have uses for maintaining numerous types of fabric under tension besides the specific use above referred to.

What I claim as my invention is:

l. A fastening element having a body portion, a plurality of hooks carried by said body portion, the ends of said hooks being spaced from said body portion, and a tubular guard carried by the body portion adjacent the ends of the hooks having a diameter greater than the distance between the hcoksand said body portion to prevent injury of the user by said hooks.

2. A fastening element having a body portion, a plurality of spaced hooks secured to said body portion, the ends of said hooks being spaced' from said body portion, and a tubular guard carried by the body portion adjacent the ends of the hooks having a diameter greater than the distance between the hooks and said body portion to prevent inJury of the user by said hooks.

3. A fastening element for securing a strip of fabric under tension, comprising body portions, a plurality of hooks carried by each of said body portions, 8. flexible guard carried by each of said body portions adjacent the ends of the hooks in a manner to be displaced by the tensional engagement of said hooks with the fabric, and to return to said guarding position upon removal of the hooks from the fabric.

4. A fastening element for securing a strip of fabric under tension, said element comprising a head portion, a plurality of sharply pointed hooks carried by said head portion the ends thereof being spaced away from said head portion, a flexible guard carried by said head portion adjacent the ends of said hooks for normally concealing the ends thereof when said unit is not in use, a neck portion secured to the head portion having tensionlng means associated therewith, and anchor means connected to said tensioning means.

LAURA SCANLON. 

